Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Welcome to my world

Hello all! Welcome to my blog!

My name is Vanessa and I've been working at the same junior high school in Japan for the last *counts on my fingers* 30 months. That’s 2 and a half years.

Now you may or may not have heard, but when you are white in Japan, you get a bit of a strange phenomenon happening to you. People stare. People point. It’s like you are on display or something. Some of my friends call it "reverse-racism" *lol* but it's kinda like a celebrity status. Everyone is amazed at how white your skin is, how blond and smooth your hair is, how blue your eyes are, how big your boobs are... lol. you get the idea. And this adulation is multiplied at thousand fold when you suddenly appear in the lives of hundreds of teens, who have either never seen another foreigner before, or only one or two (which would be the person whose job you're taking over).

Usually, this celebrity status only lasts a few weeks/months, depending how entertaining you are, but at my school, it never really went away. Even after 3 years, I get kids whispering that I am so "kawaii" when I walk past them - several times a day; I have an actual fan club (2, if you count my pervs) in which the “members” have devised a hierarchy amongst themselves; and people just generally keep on flattering me on every little thing day in and day out, and being amazed at the stupidest little details.

I actually know some people whom this would annoy. Not me!!!!! lol. I am a big attention-whore – everyone knows it – and so I totally enjoy being the center of attention every single day of school. Now before you ask, this kind of treatment I’m getting is not particularly normal. Modesty may not be my strongest point, but I don't really think how hot I am has anything to do with it either. I think I just lucked-out. My school has such good kids really, and they are all adorable, funny and well meaning. There are no delinquents here, and the worst that usually happens in class is a kid sleeping. I rarely have problems with the kids at all. Most of my frustrations stem from “the Japanese system” or the other teachers, but that’s another story.

So for the last 3 years, my kids, my kiddies, my brats, have been spewing things at me that have made me laugh, smile, and roll me eyes, and some of those have been gold. Pure gold. In the past, whenever one of these funny moments happened, I would just post a facebook status about it, but I generally found that my friends really didn’t care as much as I did. haha. So recently, I’ve been thinking that I should really start a blog where I could collect all those funny stories, and share them with the world. So here I am!

What I want to do is basically a weekly digest of the silly things that happen everyday, in diary form. So like “November 24th, today, Daisuke said this...” and such. I am also planning on doing some special features on my favorite kids, because I am a bad teacher, and I do have favorites (but I have many many of them :p), and when I don’t have anything interesting to say, I shall regal you with some of those “golden” stories from the past. (if I can remember them...) I won’t be posting any pictures though, because I’m pretty sure I would need parental consent and would get shit rained on me if anyone found out. But regardless, I’m sure there’ll be enough to keep you entertained.

2 comments:

*__________________* I've just discovered this blog and I think it's an amazing idea!! I follow you from now!I understands you, as I went to a Japanese high school for 5 months and people whispered all around "kawaiiiiii" and "she's so thin~~~"! (I'm half Japanese and half Spanish but they didn't notice my Japanese part >_< ). I would like to ask you, is it easy to get a job as an English teacher being a foreigner? I was amazed by the Japanese school life and as I couldn't enjoy it so much, I would like to live it again at least as a teacher... Please if you have time answer me ;)Byeee~!

well, it's easy enough if you are a native speaker and you have a university degree. without a degree, you just can't get a work visa, so it's pretty much impossible. if you have any further questions, feel free to leave me your email and i can answer you in more details.

hello there!

honestly, i really should have started this blog ages ago... after over 2 years in Japan, there is really no excuse, and so many missed opportunities! I basically started this blog because, on a daily basis, the things that come out of my students' mouths never fail to amaze me. and whether it's cuz they make me laugh like crazy, shake my head in wonder, or feel like a proud mama hen, i always wanna rush and tell someone, but apparently nobody (on my facebook) cares, so maybe you will. ^_- yoroshiku ne!